


Burrowing Behavior

by ninemoons42



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Gen, Inspired by Art, Shapeshifting, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-19
Updated: 2011-10-19
Packaged: 2017-10-24 19:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42





	Burrowing Behavior

**Author's Note:**

  * For [madsmurf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madsmurf/gifts).



  
title: Burrowing Behavior  
author: [](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**ninemoons42**](http://ninemoons42.dreamwidth.org/)  
word count: 1663  
fandom: X-Men: First Class  
characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme, and ensemble  
rating: G  
notes: Birthday fic for my enabler and collaborator [](http://madsmurf.livejournal.com/profile)[**madsmurf**](http://madsmurf.livejournal.com/) , who asked me for something involving my Tumblr tag "labrat and feelingshark". Extended version of [this ficlet](http://ninemoons42.tumblr.com/post/11229255611/gokuma-there-should-be-a-fic-about-sick). Lovely photograph, by the way, is absolutely adorable - and Maddie, you are the best. Simply the best. Love you.

  
A few days after they'd had to relocate to Westchester, Erik had looked up from his breakfast to the sudden silence in the kitchen, and to Raven, who was shifting from blue to blonde to, strangely enough, Charles, and all the while the expression on her face warred between amusement and discomfiture.

For once Henry was at the table with them, and he looked up at Raven and said, "Problem? And what's with the white hairs on your shoulder?"

"Oh!" Raven said, half a smile and half a blush on her face as she settled back into her natural form. "Um, yeah, about that. Charles wishes to inform you all that the library is off limits for the day - and that he's not, erm, feeling well enough to come down, but everyone still needs to go train as usual." She cocked her head and looked like she was listening to something - and for all Erik knew, she probably _was_ \- and added, "He apologizes for the inconvenience."

That got her a raised eyebrow from Alex and a wide-eyed look from Sean, and Raven flapped her hands at them in some kind of strange reassurance as she sat down to her food.

With an effort, Erik smothered his surprise and concern, and turned his attention back to his plate.

///

He'd not even gotten within ten steps of the library when Charles began to scold him inside his head.

 _Damn it, am I not allowed to have any privacy in my own home? I tell you I'm not even malingering, I almost_ wish _I could, can you please just go away and leave me alone?_

While Charles had been ranting, Erik had been moving closer to the doors.

 _You're still there, Erik._

"Not going anywhere," he said, as he tried the doorknob.

 _Too loud._

Erik got the distinct impression of Charles trying to stave off a headache - and whether he wanted to admit it or not, that just made him worry even more. If there was one thing Charles was intent on doing, it was the mentoring he was doing for the boys, for his sister - so what could have happened to him today that he had to put it off?

 _On your own head be it if you want to carry on this conversation._

"At least let me in," and now Erik was making a conscious effort to speak very softly - he was almost whispering. "You're not the only person who likes libraries, you know."

 _Person. Hmm._

"Let me in because you won't like it if I let myself in."

 _Aaah, all right. Watch your step. I'm right inside the door._

"How am I supposed to miss...you?" Erik opened the door carefully and made sure to lock it - and turned around.

 _Hello, Erik._

Erik blinked and looked down at the slightly oversized Himalayan rat placidly grooming its whiskers on the dark carpet.

"Charles."

 _Right in one,_ and the rat looked up from its paws and skittered toward Erik's shoes. _You're not going to stomp on me, are you?_

"This is some kind of secondary mutation?" Erik said, as soon as he'd managed to put his brain and his mouth back in some kind of working order.

 _I'm afraid it is, yes,_ Charles-the-rat said, and now Erik could process the slightly higher pitch of his mental voice, the quiet strange squeak undercutting his unusual accent. _I've had this one since, oh, thirteen or so? It's not exactly something I can hide as I can my original mental abilities. Oh, hard-won understanding, poor Raven._

Erik watched the rat's ears droop, and he choked back the sudden strange rush of realization.

 _Oi. Do you mind?_

"Mind?"

Chitter, squeak, and the rat was scaling his leg easily.

Erik held himself quite still as the rat climbed up to his shoulder.

 _Easier to look at you like this. I was going to develop a crick in my neck down there on the floor._

"How long..."

 _...do these episodes normally last? It varies. Usually I'm lucky, and I'm back to normal by the next day._

Erik had a sudden distinct impression of the rat shrugging.

 _I've had a few since coming back here, and so I've tried to stay in familiar places. Where a rat can be safe. Here, or in my room, and sometimes in Raven's._

"Does it feel strange, to be a rat?"

 _I'm used to it._ The rat lashed its tail in a resigned manner. _Useless for fighting, though. What can you train a rat to do?_

Erik merely raised his eyebrow. "You'd be surprised."

///

A sudden thunderstorm hit Westchester the next week and Erik sighed, and paced the corridors in lieu of running around the gardens. Also, he was kept quite busy with fending off the boys' occasional attacks of cabin fever.

On the third day of rain, Charles was once again nowhere in sight, and Erik quelled the curious/worried questions with a look, and set Alex and Sean to reviewing their geography and tactics, before saying that he would look into the matter.

He caught Raven gently by the wrist as she went into the kitchen and said, "Where is he this time?"

"Library again," she said, smiling. "Which is where he would be staying if he was sick, as well. If you're going up there, bring him some tea. The stuff he drinks is in that cabinet over there."

"He's sick, then?"

"And so is Sean, if you saw the scarf. He'll be fine. The problem is Charles." And Raven held up her fingers, thumb and pointer apart. "He changed last night."

Worry like a cold blade on the back of Erik's neck, and he nodded gravely. "I'll look after him; you deal with the others today."

"Gladly," Raven said, and she kissed him on the cheek and went to do the dishes.

///

This time, when he went upstairs to the library with a vaccuum flask of tea, there was no admonishing comment in the back of his mind, and that made him frown even harder as he quietly unlocked the doors - and then sealed them shut again with his abilities.

"Charles," Erik called, softly. Now that he had had a little time to read up on the subject, he knew that there was no sense in raising his voice. Despite the impression that the ears conveyed, rats _felt_ the world as well as they heard it.

And he hoped Charles could sense him now, could sense his step on the carpets, because the problem with him in his rat form was that then he became so _difficult_ to find. Sure, he tried to stay in just the one place so he was neither underfoot nor easy to lose - but try finding one rat in a library full of shadows on an overcast day. White fur or not, it was usually a near-impossible task, and Erik had since learned to simply wait - he had patience enough - for the rat to come to him.

He sat down on the hearth-rug, next to the leather armchair in which Charles often sat while contemplating the world, and pulled a book at random off the pile on top of the coffee table.

Small, surprised grunt. Emily Dickinson? He carefully opened the book to the page marked with a red ribbon.

 _"Go tell it" -- What a Message --  
To whom—is specified --  
Not murmur—not endearment --  
But simply—we—obeyed --  
Obeyed—a Lure—a Longing?  
Oh Nature—none of this --  
To Law—said sweet Thermopylae  
I give my dying Kiss --_

Erik read the poem out loud - against with the storm still raging outside, his voice was quiet and a rather futile salvo - and at the end of it there was a flash of white on the edge of his vision, and the tiny, unmistakable sound of a sneeze.

"Come on out, you sound like you're about to die," Erik said, still in the same soft voice. "How bad is it?"

 _Miserable. Bad enough I can't think straight. Go'way, Erik._

"At least come and get comfortable. It's not like I can catch your cold."

 _You'll regret saying that if I change back._

Erik sighed. _Do you really think I care._

Slow patter of tiny feet muffled in the thick carpet.

Erik's heart sank. Charles normally made short work of any kind of climb - as the number of times he'd been found on top of a bookcase would attest - but now he was moving sluggishly, pausing every few steps as he scrambled awkwardly up Erik's foot and leg.

 _I don't even know where I'm going,_ Charles complained - and then he cut himself off as another sneeze lashed his entire tiny frame, shaking him from nose to tail.

If he were looking at Charles in his human form, Erik would deny that he felt _fond_ of the other man - but this was the rat, and he was allowed to cluck his tongue and be worried, to feel concerned for his well-being.

"Let me, then," and without waiting for an answer Erik scooped him up in one hand, and very carefully dropped him into the breast pocket of the flannel-lined shirt he'd worn for the purpose.

 _And what were you planning to do if I should change back?_

 _I don't know. Get out of the way perhaps._

 _I give up!_ And in Erik's mind there was a distinct impression of Charles throwing up his hands in defeat.

"Good, now that's out of the way, you can sleep and think about being well," Erik murmured.

Squirming sounds and motions for a moment and then he could, if he strained his ears, hear the little rat snoring very quietly.

Erik looked back down at the book in his hand, unable to read or understand the words on the page, and settled in for the duration, quietly glad no one could see the contented smile on his face.  



End file.
